Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Heaven & Earth Blu-ray Movie Review

The Americanization of Le Ly.

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman December 22, 2014

The United States’ long and tortured experience in Vietnam has given rise to a number of notable films, including Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, The Deer Hunter , and Oliver Stone’s Platoon. Stone revisited the aftereffects of Vietnam a la Coming Home in his adaptation of Born on the Fourth of July. Still not finished with examining the way this contentious conflict spilled into the lives of its combatants, even long after hostilities had officially ceased, Stone returned to Vietnam, both literally and figuratively, for his 1993 opus Heaven & Earth, a film that’s rather interestingly told from a somewhat different viewpoint than most American films about Vietnam—namely, Heaven & Earth details the horrors of war (and its aftereffects) from the perspective of a Vietnamese woman. Heaven & Earth didn’t fare very well with either critics or audiences when it was released, but it’s an often intriguing film that offers some perhaps surprisingly lyrical imagery and some forceful performances from a large cast which includes Tommy Lee Jones, Debbie Reynolds, and Vietnamese actress Hiep Thi Le, who delivers a moving performance as Le Ly, a young Vietnamese girl who suffers a string of misfortunes that might put Job to shame.

Stone’s own battle experience helped to inform Platoon, helping to make it the viscerally disturbing film it was. Even the writer- director’s lingering discontent with Vietnam can be seen in Born on the Fourth of July in its sometimes blistering condemnation of the fact that Vietnam vets were hardly welcomed as conquering heroes once they returned to the United States. Perhaps unsurprisingly, then, Heaven & Earth continues Stone’s acerbically cynical take on the Vietnam conflict, though here it’s filtered through the compelling prism of the Vietnamese themselves.

Stone and cinematographer Robert Richardson exploit the almost surreal scenic beauty of Vietnam in the film’s opening scenes, defining the largely agrarian lifestyle that the simple villagers still follow after untold millenia. Huge fields of impossibly green grass wave subtly in the breeze while raggedly majestic trees also sway. Is this a travelogue? It’s within this apparently peaceful context that Le Ly (Hiep Thi Le) is introduced, though Stone does not let the character luxuriate in the rustic setting for long.

The rough beauty of Vietnam soon is subject to various foreign incursions, and in time Le Ly is actually captured by both South Vietnamese operatives and the Viet Cong, neither of whom seem to care one whit that they’re torturing (or worse) one of their fellow natives. Thus begins the rather sad parade of events that Le Ly must withstand. Stone based Heaven & Earth on the real life memoirs of the actual Le Ly, and the film offers a viscerally effective depiction of the “blind justice” (if you can call it justice) that afflicts innocent bystanders in a time of war. Unfortunately, the film soon begins to wallow in an almost unbearably depressive mien, with a kind of haphazard narrative structure that fails to support Stone’s obvious intent of portraying the intrinsic strength and fortitude of Le Ly as she doesn’t just survive, but even flourishes after a fashion.

That flourishing seems to come in the form of a well intentioned if perhaps just slightly scary American serviceman named Steve Butler, who arrives in Le Ly’s life almost like a Deus ex Machina savior of sorts. Butler offers to marry Le Ly, an offer distinctly at odds with the types of “offers” she’s used to receiving from the American military personnel overrunning her country, and she accepts, despite some early warning signs that Butler may not be psychologically equipped to handle hearth and home very successfully.

When Butler takes Le Ly back to America, the street smart but still largely naive young woman is delightedly shocked by the excesses of American commercialism, in a scene that Stone frames with only a modicum of cynicism, instead seeming to exult along with Le Ly over the sheer amount of products available to the average stateside consumer. On a personal level, though, Le Ly’s tribulations are far from over. She has to navigate some tricky waters with regard to Butler’s family and, later, with Butler himself once the well intentioned if troubled former soldier starts to show signs of post traumatic stress disorder.

Much like Butler himself, Heaven & Earth is film with good, maybe even great, intentions which nonetheless can’t quite follow through and make good on promises. The film is best as depicting Le Ly’s travails, though it evidently leaves out one of the most salient things about the real life Le Ly’s actual story—she managed to finally break free of her struggles and established herself as a successful businesswoman (Stone addresses this facet in a brief textual coda appending the actual film). While there's some passing lip service to forgiveness and healing old wounds toward the end of the film, Stone seems more intent on exploring the trauma that war inflicts on combatants and non-combatants alike, preferring to maintain his focus on the psychological disruptions various characters undergo rather than to concentrate on any ultimate salvation or redemptive qualities. That makes a lot of Heaven & Earth a rather depressive entry in what is by nature an inherently sad, even tragic, subgenre of war films.

Heaven & Earth Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Heaven & Earth is presented on Blu-ray with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.40:1. This is an oddly lyrical looking film quite a bit of the time (considering its somewhat dour subject matter, anyway), and that ambience translates quite beautifully to high definition. The first hour and a half or so of the film takes place in Vietnam, and Stone and cinematographer Robert Richardson offer huge panoramic shots that are often breathtaking. The greens in these sequences are truly astounding, though at times the fields of grass seem to be one congealed entity rather than separate blades. Depth of field is also quite impressive in several wide shots. A lot of Heaven & Earth is intentionally gauzy looking, with a kind of misty ambience that some may mistake for softness in the transfer. Some darker sequences, especially in the film's first torture segments, don't really offer much in the way of shadow detail, but overall general detail and fine detail are both excellent, especially in more brightly lit environments and most especially in close-ups. There are several cutaways that are in black and white, including some with some minimal visual effects added, and those are reasonably crisp and clear looking. Very minor banding is in evidence during some of the outdoor footage in the lighter gradients, as are some anomalies that slightly afflict edges of objects. Grain (which can occasionally be fairly heavy) resolves naturally and there are no intrusive signs of aggressive digital tweaking of the image.

Heaven & Earth Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Heaven & Earth features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix which provides consistent surround activity courtesy of Kitaro's somewhat overwrought but intermittently touching score and some well placed ambient environmental effects. This isn't a traditional "war" film, with booming LFE and lots of gunfire and explosions, so instead immersion tends to happen more subtly, with the chatter of leaves in the breeze or gurgling water or the relative noise of a quasi-urban Vietnamese environment. Dialogue is presented very cleanly and clearly and is well prioritized on this problem free track.

Heaven & Earth Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Director Oliver Stone. Stone provides a typically thoughtful commentary for Heaven & Earth, placing the film in its context within his own filmography (it appeared in the contentious wake of JFK), while also illuminating some of the things he wished to convey through Le Ly's story.


• Deleted Scenes with Optional Director Commentary (480p; 25:33)


• Alternate Opening with Score from Kitaro (480p; 22:34)


• Original Theatrical Trailer (480p; 3:11)

Heaven & Earth Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Heaven & Earth has noble intentions, to be sure, so if it can't quite muster up the resolve to present things completely cogently, it's still a worthwhile effort that is often supremely (if somewhat ironically) scenic. Jones is in fine form, and I personally found Hiep Thi Li to be quite moving as Le Ly (evidently her performance was met with some skepticism at the time of the film's original theatrical release). Stone is often accused of making screeds instead of films, and that proclivity is still in evidence throughout much of Heaven & Earth, but it's obvious war and its aftereffects weigh heavily upon his mind and heart. Casting that pain through the eyes of a Vietnamese woman is a fairly significant approach and despite its flaws, Heaven & Earth comes Recommended.